


You already know where this is going

by wei_wei_wei



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Based on a True Story, M/M, Sleeping Shenanigans, cuddles for the win, less focus on the romancing and more on the fluff, lots of fluff later on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2018-12-31 14:31:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12134499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wei_wei_wei/pseuds/wei_wei_wei
Summary: Naturally, it all began with a simple mission. Who was he kidding, it was always a “simple mission” before Hunk and Pidge’s Lions got trapped in a sentient bog and Keith tried to defeat 99 Alien Goblins at once so Shiro had to go to the rescue and they all had to somehow form Voltron before the day was out. But it wasn't a simple mission like that. Missions gone wrong were the norm.No, this mission itself was actually pretty sweet. What came after it was sour.or:Keith gets bad sleep deprivation. Lance is the solution.





	1. Chapter 1

 

 

Lance woke. His mind supplied that it was still sleeping hours as he shifted over in bed, only for his foot to hit something. Something… warm? He took off his eye mask in confusion. Slowly, Lance turned over in bed only to get a face full of black hair. Fucking. Keith was in his fucking bed. Lying across from him like he owned the place. The faint florescent lighting only showed a faint outline of his peaceful expression- but -but c'mon! This was supposed to be his personal sleeping time! Not this! Whatever this was!

Really? Of all the times for Keith to actually fall asleep it was now? And in his bed?!

If it had been a month earlier, Lance would have 200% kicked Keith out, no doubt about it. But now he couldn’t exactly do that in good conscience. That would be too cruel and Shiro would lecture him endlessly for it. With a long-suffering sigh Lance shuffled back into his earlier position, begrudgingly accepting his fate. As much as it pained him, Keith would had to stay.

There would be no beauty sleep tonight.

You see, about a month ago, Keith had begun napping around the clock. Sometimes in the common room, sometimes on the observatory deck, sometimes on the second floor in the training room, never in the actual training room for some reason, and well, at least he didn’t bother sleeping in the vents- but it had been pretty bad. He was getting worse than Pidge, and that was saying something.

Shiro was getting concerned, with the normal, “Keith are you sleeping alright?”, “Keith, are you getting enough rest?”, “Keith, maybe you should take a break from training?” and Lance was 50% certain that Hunk was starting to cook more carbs-rich food and warm drinks at night that made you sleepy. Not that he was complaining about that. Pidge actually started to sleep in her own bed, a miracle.

But Allura had had enough.

“Keith, you cannot take your health so lightly!” “Keith, as a paladin of Voltron you must always be ready at any moment!” “Keith, you need to take responsibility!” All day and night.

By the way, how did Lance know this? Unfortunately, Shiro and Allura were tracking Keith’s whereabouts like freaking hawks. Unfortunately because in Keith’s mulleted brain he thought the best route of escape was to hang out with Lance. Yeah. Lance didn’t really know the thought process there, they were definitely the duo that got into the biggest amount of trouble, but whatever, he rolled with it. Kicking and screaming all the way.

Result: Lance being unwilling audience member no. 2 to Shiro and Allura’s newfound lecturing streak. 

Neither Keith nor Lance were having a great time. 

Result: More fights between the two of them. Double the lectures from Shiro and Allura.

Keith’s sleep schedule debate was eventually put on the back burner from rogue distress beacons and the hectic lives of Team Voltron in general. In the midst of it all everyone eventually forgot.

 

The point was, Keith’s sleeping habits were becoming already questionable at best and honestly terrible at worst.

…

...

...

Naturally, it all began with a simple mission. Who was he kidding, it was always a “simple mission” before Hunk and Pidge’s Lions got trapped in a sentient bog and Keith tried to defeat 99 Alien Goblins at once so Shiro had to go to the rescue and they all had to somehow form Voltron before the day was out. But it wasn't a simple mission like that. Missions gone wrong were the norm.

No, this mission itself was actually pretty sweet. What came after it was sour. 

The recon and scouting of the latest distress beacon had worked out fine. This time it appeared in what they thought might be surviving Galra ships chasing the caste. Upon closer inspection, they were actually scouting ships sent from a planet in distress. Initial contact went steady, and together they formulated a plan on a way to defeat the Galra on their planet.

By the time they were about to enter the planet's atmosphere in their Lions, a plan had already been set in motion— Pidge and Hunk as one team, and Shiro, Lance and Keith as the other. The latter were meant to distract the Galra colonies on-site so Hunk & Pidge could sneak past to give Pidge’s latest invention to the inhabitants. A race known for battle, the warrior-like inhabitants also wanted to fight their own against the Galra, and Team Voltron were appreciative of any help they could get. Pidge’s invention would hopefully free the inhabitants remaining ships from the Galra, allowing them to take part in the battle for their planet. And they were just about to go in and save the day, when--

Keith freakin collapsed. And his Lion fell with him.

Lance thanked his lucky stars that Keith flew one of the smallest Lions as Shiro snatched Keith out of the air without any trouble. 

“Keith! You alright?!”

“…”

“Keith?"

“…”

“…”

“He’s not answering, Shiro…” 

“Keith? Are you hurt?"

Lance opened a video link to the Red Lion but it showed nobody in the pilot’s seat. Red was growling.

“What the…"

_“Huh? Did something happen to Keith?”_   It was Hunk and Pidge.

_“Are you guys alright?”_

“I’m not sure what’s going on with Keith, but we’ll be fine. Focus on completing your mission-“

Lance spotted unnatural movement out of the corner of his eye.

“Guys! Twelve o clock!”

A squad of fighter drones zoomed past, Lance narrowly dodging their blasts. Shiro wasn’t as lucky and took the hit. Twice.

“Shiro!”

“On your left, Lance!”

Lance managed to conjure up an ice blast to stop the oncoming drone, seconds away from hitting Blue. He could hear Black attacking the drones from behind him, Red still in its grasp.

He let himself fall into the familiarity of explode drone-repeat. The sky was filled with the explosions of destroyed fighter drones for a few long moments before the air became relatively clear again.

_“Shiro, we’ve made contact with the inhabitants. The invention has worked as planned and they’re boarding their jets now.”_

_“It all looks super cool from here, I have to say.”_

“Great. Lance, I need you to take Keith down to the inhabitants. I can shield his Lion from a few drones, but I’m sure more Galra will be arriving because of these jets, and soon.”

“You got it, captain."

_“Geez, I hope Keith's alright.”_

“Pidge, Hunk, I'll need you back here asap.”

_"Got it.” “Gotcha.”_

Lance took the Red Lion- how did Shiro make this look so effortless, Red totally threw off his balance- making his way down to the inhabitants below.

It took some time to find the exact location- and only then did Lance realise why he was having so much trouble finding the inhabitants of the planet. Because barely any of them were left on the ground.

Every one of those inhabitants were now blasting Galra from their ships in the sky. Almost like a swarm the ships blanketed the fleet, although smaller in size, vastly outnumbered the Galra 10:1. The atmosphere was covered in light. Explosions rocked the sky. The ground was shaking from battle. From where Lance was on the ground, it was a sight to behold. Was this what people saw when Voltron defeated the Galra?

“No kidding, the inhabitants really were a warrior race, huh…”

“… ngh, what? Lance?”

“Keith! So you _were_  in your Lion! The heck are you doing, man.”

“Yeah I’m… on the floor.”

“Why? You’re not hurt right?”

“I’m fine. I think I… fell asleep?”

“…”

“…You fucking what.”

A final round of explosions tore through the sky.

_“SHIRO I TOLD YOU MY SLEEPING HABITS ARE FINE OKAY? OKAY? LOOK AT KEITH!”_

_“You fell asleep?? Ohhh, man sleeping in the middle of battle, Shiro is going to have your head. You are deaad dude.”_

The Green and Yellow Lions had reached Shiro, just in time to finish off the last of the Galra ships.

Distantly, Lance could see some of the jets landing from battle. It looks like the Galra were defeated without issue.

From outside his Lion, the cheers of the inhabitants reached his ears. Lance grinned.

Shiro, all business, interrupted their conversation, “Everyone, get back to the castle for debriefing. This mission was a success.”

“Roger!”

_“Didn’t even need Voltron this time, huh?”_

…

…

…

They were back in the castle. 

“Are you sure you’re alright?” It was Hunk. “You seemed kinda wobbly on the flight back."

“I’m _fine_.” Keith was pinching the bridge of his nose and glaring at a spot in the floor. He didn’t look fine and Lance was about to say so when Shiro showed up.

“...Keith.” He looked pretty disappointed. Keith did too.

It looked like a lecture was in order, and Lance didn’t want to be around for yet another one.

As if sensing his unease, “C’mon, let’s give them some space.” Hunk -his saviour- led them both out the room.

…

…

...

“You didn’t fall asleep.”

Allura was gathered before the five of them in the med bay. After the celebration at the planet, Allura had called them all here. It was almost time for bed, or by Lance’s standards at least. Not by Keith’s standards.

Shiro had convinced Keith to get a health scan in the med bay as a last resort. He thought there might be a more reasonable explanation. Pidge just thought it was more of a last resort for his sanity. Hunk theorised that maybe it was a Galra thing. Keith disagreed with both.

What they hadn’t expected was for the scan to actually find something.

“Wait, what? What do you mean?” 

“This scan can pinpoint specific states your body has been in during the past 24 varga. It says here, at the time you were in battle, you briefly slipped into unconsciousness.”

“…”

“That’s… not sleeping?”

Pidge face palmed, “Of course, he probably couldn’t even tell the difference.”

“Basically, you fainted.” Allura said.

“Okay… so what’s up with all of those data scans behind you? Fainting really doesn’t seem like such a big deal to me.”

Allura sighed, “I’m afraid we’ll have to take it a little more seriously, mind you.” She turned to press a few more panels on the screens of data behind her. 

"These are from the last two weeks. I tried to grab every record I could of you needing to be scanned in any shape or form in the med bay. Luckily, since you actually use the training deck, this was not as hard as it could have been.”

She paused to tap on a specific set of data.

“From what I’ve gathered here, the records say that you’ve slipped into unconsciousness 7 times these past two weeks. Possibly more. That is… a cause for concern.”

Lance frowned, “In the past two weeks..? But, recently we haven’t had any huge fights where one of us was injured! And I’m pretty sure we would notice if Keith was knocked out… seven…. times….”

Everyone turned to Keith.

“Oh my quiznack you haven’t been napping at all.”

“Well I thought I was sleeping!”

“You sure weren’t!"

Keith growled, “Sleeping, unconsciousness, it’s the same thing-“

“Unfortunately it could be a sign of a bigger problem, number four!” Coran, who was obviously there the entire time, began, “It says here that this is quite a major symptom of sleep deprivation. Minus the hallucinations, of course.”

“So what you’re saying is, Keith hasn’t been sleeping… at all?” Shiro frowned very deeply.

“Wait what you mean is, Keith’s could start hallucinating?” Hunk worried, looking at Keith. “You should really get some sleep dude.”

“I was! How was I meant to know I was actually going unconscious!”

“He couldn’t even tell the difference, told ya.” Pidge said, adjusting her glasses. “I’d probably just give him some sleeping pills to fix it.”

Hunk sighed, “It wouldn’t fix the main issue here…”

“Yeah but Keith literally passed out in the heat of battle. _Keith_. It should help."

Keith looked pretty tired. Cranky and tired. Verging on too tired to argue back. He was messing with his forehead again. A headache?

“Fainting, though…”

“I’m almost 100% certain that’s due to the sleep deprivation. The records match up well.”

“We’ll figure the rest of it out later. First, we see what impact the sleeping pills have after we, -everyone-, gets some sleep.”

But they didn’t figure it out. Early morning broke with an emergency alarm from Allura. A Galra fleet was on their tail, which led to another prison rescue and a close call from a higher up in Zarkon’s command. Once again in the midst of it, everyone eventually forgot.

The packet of sleeping pills lay useless in the med bay, a singular tablet taken out of its socket.


	2. Chapter 2

It was after dinner. Maybe it was just habit by this point, but Hunk hadn’t stopped making that sweet, sweet comfort food. Not that Lance was complaining. He had returned to his room for a well-deserved nap and was about to doze off when he was rudely awakened by— was someone yelling? Was that screaming?

 

Lance removed his headphones- it was so loud he could hear it through his _headphones_ \- and then he realised why that was the case.

 

The screaming was coming from right next door. Keith’s room. _What._

 

Lance wasted no more time in leaping from bed and running to the scene. Hunk was already inside.

 

“Hunk? What’s going on?”

 

“Oh, oh Lance! Keith’s freaking out.” Hunk pointed to the closed bathroom door.

 

“Yeah, I heard him screaming. Is he injured?”

 

Hunk winced. “No, just panicked. I think?”

 

“You _think_?”

 

“ _Stay away from me!_ ” What was clearly Keith’s voice sounded from the bathroom.

 

“ _Don’t come any closer! Leave me alone!_ ”

 

“What?! Keith?"

 

“ _Monster!” Stay away!_ ” His voice was wrecked like he’d been screaming for a while. He seemed honestly distressed even though it was just the two of them in the next room. Lance shivered, it was scary seeing Keith loose his cool like this. Hunk looked like he was in the same boat.

 

He took a step toward the door but Hunk stopped him. “He’ll scream more if you do that.”

 

“We should really get Shiro…”

 

“Yeah yeah I think he’s in the hangers with Pidge! I’ll go and get them, okay?” Hunk’s eyes darted back and forth, “And you look after Keith.”

 

“What?”

 

“Sorry, Lance!”

 

“Wait- you-“ Hunk ran off. Lance sighed, well Hunk did seem pretty freaked out. He was probably just waiting for an opportunity to leave for help. And this was a freaky situation. Seeing Keith lose it in anger was pretty ordinary, even funny at times. But this… this kind of situation was not.

 

Sure, Lance could take one for the team. Probably.

 

He could start to hear rapid breathing coming from the bathroom.

 

“Hey, Keith! Are you alright?” He shouted out.

 

“…”

 

“…”

 

The breathing got even faster. Shit.

 

Keith was hyperventilating.

 

“Hey, take deep breaths man! Don’t freak out, you’re okay!”

 

“ _Stay away! Get away from me!_ ” Keith’s voice rung out again. Lance didn’t think he could get used to Keith sounding like that.

 

…But at least that had stopped the hyperventilating.

 

It was like Keith was lost in his own world. Lance frowned. Nothing seemed to be getting through to him. Maybe it was better to leave him alone for the time being… so he could calm down. Yeah.

 

That’s where Shiro and Pidge found Lance, outside of Keith’s door.

 

“He was hyperventilating a moment ago.”

 

Shiro opened the door, then walked straight to the bathroom door and opened that, too. The garrison trio looked on from within the door frame.

 

“Did he even lock it?” Hunk whispered. Lance shrugged. Pidge looked on with wide eyes.

 

Keith backed up against the wall.

 

“ _Stop- Get away from me! Go away!_ ”

 

Lance didn’t know if it was a good or bad sign that Shiro had clearly been in this situation before.

 

“You’re hallucinating, Keith. Let me help you...”

 

Keith looked equal parts angry and horrified as Shiro reached out a hand towards him.

 

“ _No- no! Don’t!_ ” He chocked back a scream as Shiro checked the temperature on his head.

 

“He does have a bit of a fever, but it’s probably the sleep deprivation.” He told them.

 

“I thought we took care of that!” Hunk whispered to Pidge.

 

“Did we? I can’t remember..."

 

Keith still looked terrified of Shiro, who was looking remorseful.

 

“Sorry, Keith. We haven’t been looking out for you as much as we should have been.” Shiro turned to the others, “I’ve got a handle on things from here, okay? You three go tell Allura and Coran the situation.”

 

Not wanting to stay around any longer, the trio nodded and set off for the two Alteans.

 

….

 

30 minutes later…

 

 

 

Things were looking better, but not by much. Shiro had managed to get Keith to take some medicine and lie down in bed, but that hadn’t done anything for the hallucinations. Less for Keith’s current state of stress.

 

“Firstly, I don’t believe we should all go in there and crowd him.” Allura said outside the door, "As for the cure to those hallucinations, I’m not sure myself. Coran?”

 

“There is no sure way, Altean medicine cannot cure things such as that. For today, the goal is to give him the sleeping pills. Then we will find a way to make sure he gets enough rest, no more pushing this under the Hoodflink!”

 

Everyone nodded in agreement.

 

“I think we should allow Keith to calm down first…” Shiro muttered, clearly in thought, “Unless things don’t get any better from here.”

 

“Sorry Shiro, but it’s already been 30 minutes and he’s still freaking out…” Pidge said, downtrodden, “How much longer do you want to wait?”

 

Allura clapped her hands. “Well, does anyone have any ideas?"

 

“I could cook him something.”

 

Everyone looked at Hunk.

 

“What? Nothing else worked. It’s worth a shot! I’m not a medical professional, but I know a good meal can cure many things. Heartbreak, homesickness...”

 

“Hallucinations?”

 

“Probably not but it’ll calm him down for sure!” Hunk seemed content to go back into the kitchen and grab some food, so they let him be.

 

Moments later Hunk reappeared with a plate of food. He grinned.

 

“Honestly, I just reheated it. I don’t want to draw this out any longer…”

 

“Alright, just, do your magic Hunk!” Lance pushed Hunk inside.

 

…

 

…

 

Hunk stepped out of the room.

 

“Well?”

 

“Well he ate some of it but not that much…” Lance clapped Hunk on the shoulder. “Hey, that’s progress!” The tension loosened between the paladins.

 

“I could go back in…” Shiro sighed, “But honestly I think I’ll freak him out again and make the situation worse. Pidge?”

 

“…I’d rather not be screamed at.”

 

“That’s alright.”

 

“I could try.” Allura walked towards the door.

 

“I wasn’t there when he was yelling before, my presence may not make him as afraid.”

 

She entered the room before anyone could voice an objection.

 

…

 

“I don’t know about this, guys…"

 

…

 

Allura exited the room moments later.

 

She sighed, “He simply looked so terrified, I’m afraid the hallucinations have not worn off. We may have to give him the sleeping pills at once after all.”

 

Coran hesitated, but nodded.

 

“If its for the best,” Shiro said. The team was in agreement.

 

Nobody looked at Lance. But Lance thought, he thought that something to do with a situation like this was almost on the tip of his tongue…

 

That’s right, it was a memory.

 

Lance thought back to staying at his auntie’s place, and his little cousin crying from a fever. A fever which bought on hallucinations. Nothing would calm him, not even his mother’s soft words. Everything only made the screaming worse. Everything except…

 

“I’ll give it a go.”

 

They turned to him.

 

“You sure?” said Pidge. The rest seemed as unsure as she was, but Lance didn’t hesitate.

 

“I’m positive.”

 

“Good luck-!” Hunk called after him as he walked through the door.


End file.
